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The urban-suburban divide that has marked Toronto politics for decades has arrived in Mississauga, amid debate over plans for reinventing the city’s downtown area.

Are suburbanites prepared to ante up through their property taxes for master plans, amenities and infrastructure to create a “real” urban core? Or will they be content to let development proceed as it will — and possibly see condo towers rising in their neighbourhoods?

On one side at last week’s council meeting were downtown councillors pushing for a “Main Street District” community improvement plan that would expedite building the cultural facilities, streetscapes and infrastructure needed to shape the downtown core into a thriving urban centre.

On the other side were suburban councillors, adamant their constituents shouldn’t have to shoulder the cost of the downtown plan through their taxes when the city is already facing a massive infrastructure burden — including how to fund a sorely needed $1.5 billion LRT.

While all agree Mississauga’s downtown, currently centred on a massive mall, is ready for a new stage of growth, no one is sure how much the province or Ottawa will be prepared to contribute.

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“The downtown core will be the cultural mecca of the city, it will be the financial mecca of the city. It will be what drives this city for the next century going forward,” downtown Councillor Nando Iannicca said following a lengthy debate. “Let’s just make sure that all the people that benefit pay their fair share.”

After decades of low taxes because the growing city was raking in development charges, Mississaugans are going to have to get used to paying more, Iannicca told the Star.

But councillors representing wards outside the core area said their constituents shouldn’t have to foot the cost of amenities that will mainly benefit the residents of more than 30 highrise towers planned for downtown.

“This should be a downtown levy, and not on the taxpayers,” said Councillor Pat Mullin, who took issue with a staff recommendation to launch the community improvement plan because it didn’t clarify how it would be paid for.

“I’m not going to ask the taxpayers to pay for the downtown development,” said Councillor Ron Starr, echoed by Councillor Jim Tovey, who said, “I don’t think this should be coming out of the property tax base.”

Some suggested a special downtown levy, on top of existing charges, be applied to developers and corporations that want to build or move into the core area.

City manager Janice Baker suggested that a land transfer tax being pushed by Mayor Hazel McCallion could help raise the needed funds. “Don’t tie our hands,” she added, explaining that it’s too early to take property taxes off the table as a funding option.

Downtown Councillor Frank Dale warned that asking the private sector to pay for the growth may propel business elsewhere. “We want to attract more office, commercial. We want to develop the main street. We’re sort of caught,” Dale said.

Iannicca agreed, but supported the idea of increased levies for downtown partners, perhaps even a mechanism whereby downtown property owners would pay a percentage of land sale revenues. But with the city almost built out, infrastructure funding has to change, he said.

As it is, he said, condo development is subsidizing the taxes of single-detached homes on estate lots.

With more density mandated by the province, residents who don’t support healthy downtown development could find highrises going up in their backyards, Iannicca warned.

“As the downtown core goes, it’s beneficial to everybody,” he said. “I want a place where people say, ‘I don’t want to go to Yorkville tonight, we’re going to Mississauga’s downtown.’ And they can thrive with jobs, with amenities, recreation, culture, new boutiques, the new trattoria … the museums, the shopping, the public park space.”

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